Connecting with God through poetic articulations of lived, embodied experience–engaging texts from the Revised Common Lectionary for Christian churches, other biblical and spiritual texts, and evocations of the divine in rituals and other public events–always accepting lived reality as a primary source of divine revelation and mystery.

Impossible Is Opinion Not Fact

When I hear Jesus speak of mustard seed, like a Mighty Mouse of faithful living, I think of Muhammad Ali, whose faith was awe-inspiring; it matters not to me whether his faith was in himself or in Allah or something else, in fact he moved mountains— he beat systems stacked against him and earned respect even from those who hated him. Would that I could be so faithful!!!

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I was raised to hear Jesus shaming disciples, us, for not having enough faith— not even as much as a tiny mustard seed— when what he is offering is encouragement, indeed saying we have more than we need to do what we are called to do, who we are called to be in God’s economy of life and grace. We need not be slaves to former understandings, a Christianity that is about obligation, hard rules, having to earn God’s love, and falling short. Instead, we can break guilt-inducing chains, even turning his lesson about doing what is commanded, as if we have no choice, into a commitment to live joyously, exuberantly the way he did, not focused on duty alone but also on the gift that comes from being all we can be, of knowing that God calls us not to perfection but to faithfulness.

Hard to hear Jesus speak of slaves, given our history, how it continues to infect our world; I choose not to hear this parable as an endorsement of human cruelty. Instead, within the world he inhabits, he speaks of a system of mutual accountability, where each party provides what is expected: work by one and food, rest, care, and protection by the other. Might this be a way to understand faith—with one big difference: God provides the faith and the care, and hopes we will use them to make our whole selves and our world in God’s image? No divine punishment if we do or don’t, but we are accountable to God and each other for how we use God’s gifts, how we claim the power— do we hide our soul lamp under blankets of fear or do we boldly proclaim and live our mission, do we don our cape, remember with Muhammad Ali: impossible is opinion not fact?